PeerJ最新文献

{"title":"Invasive Strawberry Guava weakens avian frugivory in native forests of an oceanic island.","authors":"Ghanishta Seeburrun, Cláudia Baider, François Benjamin Vincent Florens","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21749","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Frugivorous birds play a vital role in tropical forests by dispersing seeds and facilitating plant regeneration. The effectiveness of frugivores, including birds, as seed dispersers depends in part on their fruit removal rates. Although invasive alien plants (IAP) may influence the seed-dispersal role of birds in varied ways, few comparative field studies have dealt with avian frugivore-plant interactions, particularly in settings of advanced invasion on oceanic islands. We assess how IAP influences birds' attack rates on fruit models, to explore the ecological and conservation implications for avian seed dispersers and the plants that they disperse. We studied and compared two protected native forests on the oceanic island of Mauritius (Mascarenes), each comprising an area weeded of IAP (since 1990s) and an adjacent area invaded primarily by Strawberry Guava (<i>Psidium cattleyanum</i>), the overwhelmingly dominant invasive woody plant in Mauritian lowland wet forests. We quantified avian frugivory in weeded and invaded forests using artificial fruit models made from non-toxic modelling clay, which were collected 72 h later to quantify avian feeding attempts (based on beak marks on the models). Moreover, passive acoustic monitoring was used to assess frugivorous bird assemblages and overall activity across forest types. This procedure was repeated 11 times over 1 year. Bird species richness was comparable across the two forest types, but total acoustic detection rate was higher in the weeded forest at both sites, with a moderate shift in bird assemblages in the invaded forests. Native bird species tend to be most negatively impacted by IAP. Avian attack rates on fruit models were about thrice higher in weeded than in invaded forests at both sites, and were positively associated with increased Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI) values, suggesting greater bird activity and foraging effort in weeded forest. Invasion by the dominant fleshy-fruited IAP reduces habitat quality for native frugivorous birds and weakens bird-plant interactions, potentially disrupting bird-mediated seed dispersal. This may be driven by two mechanisms: native fleshy-fruited plant species produce fewer fruits in invaded forests and/or forest penetrability by birds may be lowered by an extremely high stem density of understorey weeds. Conservation strategies should prioritise <i>in situ</i> control of IAP to reverse the lowered carrying capacity of birds, particularly given that only 8% of surviving natural habitats have been weeded, while the remaining 92% continue to be degraded by IAP. Weeding larger native habitat areas would promote natural regeneration of native plants, while fostering the recovery of threatened native bird species. Over time, this would enhance ecosystem resilience and reduce support for currently intensive and costly management interventions like planting, which largely constrain areas that can be managed for conservation.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21749"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13633687/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effect of early regional anesthesia on postoperative cognitive function and the perioperative stress response in patients with hip fractures: a randomized controlled trial.","authors":"Rui Zeng, Jingru Li, Zehao Wei, Peng Jiang, Peng Ma","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21764","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Whether early application of anterior iliopsoas muscle space block (AIMSB) impacts postoperative cognitive function remains uncertain. This study aimed to compare the incidence of postoperative delirium (POD) among patients who received AIMSB at different time points.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This prospective, single-blind, randomized trial enrolled 79 patients aged ≥65 years hospitalized for primary unilateral total hip arthroplasty (THA) due to hip fractures (December 2022 to February 2024). All patients underwent spinal anesthesia. Participants were randomized to receive AIMSB either the day before surgery (D group, <i>n</i> = 39) or one hour before surgery (H group, <i>n</i> = 40). The primary outcome was the incidence of POD within 7 days. Secondary outcomes included postoperative pain scores at specified intervals, time to first rescue analgesia, cumulative opioid consumption, motor function recovery time, hospital discharge time, sleep quality, Quality of Recovery-15 (QoR-15), and laboratory tests.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Seventy-six patients completed the study per protocol. POD incidence was 8.1% (3/37) in the day-before-surgery group and 12.8% (5/39) in the hour-before-surgery group (risk difference, -4.7%; 95% CI [-18.4% to 9.0%]; <i>P</i> = 0.71). At 6 hours postoperatively, resting pain scores (2.46 ± 0.80 <i>vs.</i> 2.95 ± 1.21, <i>P</i> = 0.043) and movement-evoked pain scores (3.24 ± 0.83 <i>vs.</i> 3.79 ± 1.17, <i>P</i> = 0.021) were lower in the D group; however, these differences did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons. In an exploratory <i>post-hoc</i> analysis, the IL-6 curve area under the curve was 0.895 (95% CI [0.784-0.998]) this finding requires prospective validation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Among elderly patients undergoing THA for hip fracture, performing AIMSB one day preoperatively, compared to one hour preoperatively, did not significantly reduce the incidence of POD. An exploratory analysis suggested a transient early postoperative pain benefit, that did not survive multiplicity correction. These findings warrant further investigation in larger, appropriately powered trials.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21764"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13633690/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modular constraint-based joint dynamic functional brain graph learning model for identifying brain disorders.","authors":"Peiming Xu, Yaru Li, Wei Si, Linmin Wang, Xiao Jiang","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21439","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21439","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) captures spontaneous neural activity and has become a valuable tool for investigating functional alterations in brain disorders. A widely used strategy is to estimate functional connectivity (FC) between brain regions based on blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signals, which can be further represented as functional brain graphs (FBGs). Despite promising results, existing methods typically rely on static FBGs derived from a single brain atlas, which limits their ability to capture the temporal variability of brain activity and integrate complementary anatomical information. Moreover, the modular organization of brain networks-an important feature linked to cognitive function and disease-has often been overlooked in model design. To address these limitations, we propose a modularity-constrained dynamic FBG learning framework for brain disorder classification. The proposed method integrates FBGs constructed from multiple brain atlases and captures dynamic spatio-temporal patterns using a sliding window strategy and a Transformer encoder. We employ a stochastic block model (SBM) to detect modular structures, and further incorporate modularity constraints into the training objective to enhance model interpretability and regularize learning. Experiments on the Autism Brain lmaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) and the REST-meta-MDD Consortium (REST-MDD) datasets demonstrate that our method achieves classification accuracies of 68.5% and 65.3%, respectively, outperforming conventional and competitive deep learning methods. This framework provides a novel perspective for dynamic modeling of brain functional connectivity and demonstrates potential for clinical application.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21439"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13633691/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multi-scale environmental drivers of pollinator community composition, richness, and abundance across multiple taxa.","authors":"Tea Skendzic, Snezana Popov, Marija Milicic, Marina Jankovic Milosavljevic, Snezana Radenkovic, Ante Vujic, Dusanka Vujanovic","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21629","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21629","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pollination is a crucial ecosystem service sustaining plant reproduction, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning. Understanding how pollinator communities respond to environmental factors is therefore essential for supporting pollinator services, particularly in agricultural landscapes. We surveyed three pollinator taxa, wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies, across 26 semi-arid grassland sites in Vojvodina (Serbia) during three seasons in 2022. We assessed how landscape-scale (agricultural, forest, and grassland cover) and local habitat variables (total flower cover and vegetation height) structure species composition, and how these variables, together with short-term weather conditions, influence species richness and abundance. Redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to assess drivers of community composition, while generalized additive models (GAMs) were applied to model richness and abundance patterns. Because observed richness was correlated with total abundance, we additionally conducted sensitivity analyses using Fisher's alpha for wild bees and butterflies and Shannon diversity for hoverflies. Species composition in all three taxa was primarily structured by landscape-scale variables. Wild bee, hoverfly, and butterfly assemblages differed in their responses to landscape gradients, likely reflecting variation in life-history traits, dispersal, and larval ecology. In contrast, richness and abundance reflected additional fine-scale and short-term processes. Observed wild-bee richness was influenced by grassland cover and weather (temperature and wind speed), whereas Fisher's alpha indicated a stronger role of vegetation height. Hoverfly richness was associated with local floral resources and weather, but these relationships were not retained in Shannon diversity models, suggesting that they partly reflected variation in abundance, activity, or detectability. Butterfly richness was associated with cloud cover, a pattern also supported by Fisher's alpha. Weather variables affected observed richness despite surveys being conducted under standardized meteorological thresholds, demonstrating that biologically meaningful variation in pollinator activity and detectability can persist within accepted monitoring protocols. Pollinator responses were taxon-specific and differed between landscape and local environmental drivers, with landscape context shaping community composition and local habitat or weather conditions influencing richness, abundance, and activity-related patterns. Sensitivity analyses highlighted the importance of distinguishing observed richness from abundance-independent diversity, particularly for wild bees and hoverflies. Effective monitoring and conservation strategies should therefore integrate landscape context, local habitat quality, and weather covariates, while interpreting observed richness cautiously when abundance and detectability vary among sites.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21629"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13633686/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reassessment of Miocene putative coprolites from Poland suggests a biogenic origin and probable squamate (reptilian) producers.","authors":"Tomasz Brachaniec, Dorota Środek, Michał Bugajski, Grzegorz Sadlok, Bartosz Czader, Adam Danielak, Oleksandr Kovalchuk","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21755","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21755","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Additional ferruginous excrement-shaped masses interpreted as putative coprolites were recovered from Miocene deposits of the Kleszczów Graben, central Poland. Earlier studies favored an abiotic origin, but our reassessment provides evidence supporting a biogenic interpretation. Key indicators include their consistent size and morphology, fine surface striations, and the presence of hair-like inclusions. These features distinguish the relatively homogeneous, elongated, and variably compressed forms from morphotypes previously described in the Turów and Kleszczów areas (southwestern and central Poland, respectively). Comparisons with modern faeces suggest that squamates (lizards and/or snakes) were the most probable producers, consistent with reptilian remains documented from the Miocene deposits of Bełchatów. Alternative vertebrate producers and non-biogenic explanations appear less consistent with the observed characteristics. Our findings highlight the palaeobiological processes involved in the formation of these structures and provide new insights into the faunal composition and ecological dynamics of Miocene ecosystems in central Poland.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21755"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13632681/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Guardians of the canopy: two new turtle ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: <i>Cephalotes</i>), from Ecuador's Chocó and Amazonia, revealed by morphology and DNA barcoding.","authors":"Adrian Troya, Akayky Yumbay, Elian Ilguan, Alex Pazmiño-Palomino, Fernanda Salazar-Buenaño, David A Donoso","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21610","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21610","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We describe two new species of arboreal ants of the genus <i>Cephalotes</i> Latreille, 1802, from Ecuador: <i>Cephalotes esthelae</i> Ilguan & Troya, <b>sp. nov.</b> and <i>Cephalotes sacha</i> Yumbay & Troya, <b>sp. nov.</b> The former, a member of the <i>pinelii</i> + <i>grandinosus</i>-group, was collected from lowland Chocó and Amazonian forests, while the latter, belonging to the <i>atratus</i>-group, is an inhabitant of the Amazonian region. Diagnoses and detailed morphological descriptions of workers and soldiers are provided, illustrated by high-resolution images. Species identification was further corroborated with mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (CO1) sequences, which confirmed their distinctiveness from morphologically similar congeners. Both species exhibit unique combinations of mesosomal and gastric characters. In addition, we provide the first description of the soldier of the rarely collected <i>C. dentidorsum</i> De Andrade, 1999. These discoveries expand the known diversity of the genus in Ecuador to 33 species, highlighting this region's role as a hotspot for Neotropical myrmecofauna. A fully illustrated key and checklist of all <i>Cephalotes</i> species known from Ecuador is also presented. The new taxa occur in well-preserved but increasingly threatened forests, ecosystems subject to high rates of deforestation and mining activity, potentially endangering their populations. The integration of molecular and morphological evidence provides a robust framework for delimiting species such as in this morphologically complex and species-diverse genus. We highlight the need for further exploration in understudied regions such as the Chocó and Andean-Amazonian foothills. Continued morphology- and DNA-based research will be crucial to elucidate phylogenetic relationships, assess biogeographic barriers such as the Andes, and inform conservation strategies for Ecuador's arboreal ant fauna.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21610"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13632685/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"ChoCallate: a computational pipeline for consensus germline variant calling in genomic sequencing data.","authors":"Aleksey Ermolaev, Mikhail Divashuk","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21758","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Accurate germline variant calling in non-model and polyploid organisms remains challenging due to sequencing errors, genomic complexity, and caller-specific biases. Existing ensemble methods of variant calling are constrained by species-specific training, limited portability, or an inability to process multiple samples concurrently. To address these limitations we developed ChoCallate, a Nextflow-based pipeline for consensus germline variant calling. The pipeline integrates three species-independent callers, bcftools, FreeBayes, and Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK) HaplotypeCaller, within a flexible voting mechanism. A distinctive feature of ChoCallate is its incorporation of coverage-aware consensus generation <i>via</i> Browser Extensible Data (BED) file, enabling reliable variant identification even in reduced-representation sequencing data such as Restriction site Associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) or RNA-seq. In a simulated dataset containing 10,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 1,000 InDels of <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> across coverage depths ranging from 3× to 50×, the two-vote consensus strategy provided a favourable precision-recall balance, particularly at lower coverage (3×-10×), where SNP precision was enhanced without substantial loss of sensitivity. False-negative variants were found to concentrate in centromeric and nucleolus organizer regions (NORs) across all strategies, indicating that repetitive genomic structure, rather than consensus logic, constitutes the primary limitation. In a case study of 200 bread wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum</i>) samples, ChoCallate identified 11,178 high-confidence variants, and a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for awnedness successfully recovered the known B1/ALI-1 locus on chromosome 5A, replicating prior findings with reduced genomic inflation (<i>λ</i> (gc) = 1.06) by decreasing the number of false-positive variants through a consensus-based approach. ChoCallate is portable, species-agnostic, and freely available.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21758"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13632679/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149112149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A cross-sectional study examining the reliability and invariance of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) across ten countries/regions.","authors":"Xiu-Mei Chen, Yang Li, Iqbal Pramukti, Daniel Kwasi Ahorsu, Shikha Kukreti, Ji-Kang Chen, Wan Ying Gan, Kamolthip Ruckwongpatr, Rashmi Gupta, Cheng-Kuan Lin, Dang Tran, Pham le An, Mark D Griffiths, I-Hua Chen, Chung-Ying Lin, Olga Malas","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21745","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) is widely used to assess psychological symptoms among university students. However, its factor structure remains inconsistent, and few studies have employed advanced modeling approaches such as exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), particularly in cross-cultural contexts.</p><p><strong>Objectives: </strong>The present study evaluated the factor structure of the DASS-21 by comparing five models: unidimensional, oblique three-factor, bifactor, three-factor ESEM, and bifactor ESEM. For the best-fitting model, internal consistency and measurement invariance across cultural, linguistic, and demographic groups were further examined.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using secondary data from an international mental health project, this cross-sectional study analyzed responses from 12,059 university students (<i>M</i> = 20.37 years, <i>SD</i> = 1.98; age range: 18-34; 36.6% men and 63.4% women) across ten distinct countries/regions: Mainland China, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The three-factor ESEM model showed the best fit across the ten countries/regions with acceptable fit indices, satisfactory internal consistency (McDonald's <i>ω</i> > 0.70), and acceptable internal structural validity evidence. Measurement invariance testing supported configural and metric invariance across all ten countries/regions, whereas scalar invariance was not achieved, limiting direct cross-cultural comparisons. This pattern was also observed across the seven language groups. In contrast, scalar invariance was established across age, gender, data collection mode (online versus offline), and pandemic timing (onset versus post-COVID-19), further highlighting potential cultural and linguistic influences on DASS-21 responses.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings support the DASS-21's robust internal structure and reliability across diverse student populations, while emphasizing caution in cross-cultural comparisons.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21745"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13632677/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploratory effects of coffee-derived exosome-like nanoparticles in a fibrillar amyloid-beta 1-42-induced neurodegenerative rat model: evidence from fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and phosphorylated tau/amyloid precursor protein expression.","authors":"Yusuf Kucukbagriacik, Gulistan Sanem Saribas, Kahraman Ates, Cenan Ozturk, Eren Kahyaoglu, Sezen Kislal, C Ceren Akgul, A Ozgur Karacalioglu, Cuneyt Goksoy, Murat Kantarcioglu","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21739","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by amyloid-beta 1-42 (Aβ_1-42) accumulation, tau pathology, and metabolic dysfunction. This exploratory study evaluated the effects of coffee-derived exosome-like nanoparticles (CELNs) on selected metabolic and histopathological endpoints in a fibrillar Aβ_1-42-induced neurodegenerative rat model.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Fifty male <i>Sprague-Dawley</i> rats were randomly divided into five groups (<i>N</i> = 10 each): Control (C), sham (SF), a fibrillar Aβ_1-42-induced neurodegenerative rat model (AD), AD treated with a low dose of CELNs (AD + LE, 10 mg/kg/day), and AD treated with a high dose of CELNs (AD + HE, 20 mg/kg/day) for 14 days. CELNs were quantified and characterized using the bicinchoninic acid method, scanning electron microscopy, and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA). Micro-positron emission tomography/computed tomography fluorodeoxyglucose (MicroPET/CT FDG) imaging of the central nervous system was performed in all groups at the end of treatment. Subsequently, all animals were sacrificed, and hippocampal tissues were subjected to histopathological analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>MicroPET imaging demonstrated a significant, dose-dependent increase in cerebral glucose metabolism in AD rats treated with CELNs compared with the untreated AD group. Histopathological evaluations were consistent with the imaging data: in AD groups receiving CELNs, phospho-tau and beta-amyloid precursor protein expression were significantly reduced in the hippocampal cornu ammonis 2 (CA2) and dentate gyrus regions compared with the untreated AD group.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In this exploratory fibrillar Aβ_1-42-induced neurodegenerative rat model, oral CELN administration was associated with dose-dependent partial improvements in cerebral glucose metabolism and region-specific reductions in hippocampal phosphorylated tau (p-Tau) and amyloid precursor protein (APP) immunoreactivity. However, these are preliminary biomarker-level findings that support further investigation of CELNs; definitive confirmation of functional and cognitive benefits requires additional behavioral, biodistribution, and experimental validation.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21739"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13632683/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149113361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diagnostic yield of Franseen biopsy needles in endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition: a systematic review and meta-analysis.","authors":"Cheng Gao, Yongfei Lai, Xiang Qu","doi":"10.7717/peerj.21737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21737","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided tissue acquisition is pivotal for diagnosing solid gastrointestinal and pancreaticobiliary lesions. The Franseen needle, featuring a three-pronged crown tip, promises improved core procurement and diagnostic accuracy. This study systematically compares the performance of Franseen versus standard needles across key procedural and diagnostic outcomes.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane CENTRAL were systematically searched for studies published up to April 2025, with an updated search conducted in July 2026, evaluating Franseen and comparator needles in adult patients. Outcomes included sample adequacy, diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUROC), histological core procurement, number of needle passes per patient, and adverse events. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed, and the data were reported as odds ratios (OR) or weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Heterogeneity was assessed using Cochran's Q and <i>I</i> ² statistics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Thirty studies (<i>n</i>≈12,000 observations) were included. Franseen needles were associated with significantly higher odds of sample adequacy than standard needles (OR 2.83; 95% CI [2.13-3.75]; <i>I</i> ² = 17%). Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 0.92 (95% CI [0.87-0.95]) and 0.98 (95% CI [0.92-1.00]), respectively, with AUROC 0.99. Optimal histological cores were procured in 89% of patients (95% CI [81-94%]), with a five-fold higher likelihood than standard needles (OR 5.02; 95% CI [3.29-7.68]). Franseen needles reduced passes per patient by 0.36 on average (WMD -0.36; 95% CI [-0.61 to -0.10]). Adverse event rates did not differ significantly between Franseen and the standard needles (OR 1.13; 95% CI [0.58-2.19]).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Franseen needles improve sample adequacy and core procurement and may enhance diagnostic accuracy while maintaining safety; however, diagnostic accuracy estimates should be interpreted cautiously given evidence of small-study effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":19799,"journal":{"name":"PeerJ","volume":"14 ","pages":"e21737"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13632682/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149112953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}